OLYMPIA, Wash. — Timber sales involving older trees on state trust lands that haven’t reached old-growth status have become a high profile point of contention in recent years. Big tree preservation was a major campaign issue during the last election cycle.
In his first major act in office, Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove declared a 6-month pause on trust land timber sales involving mature, structurally complex forests.
“In the campaign I made a commitment to do better at managing and protecting the habitat so we have sustainable forestry for generations to come,” said Upthegrove in a recent interview.
According to Upthegrove, the pause will allow the Department of Natural Resources to develop a more accurate picture of the mix of forest types under the agency’s control and to ensure that it fulfills its obligations under habitat conservation plans. The new Lands Commissioner has also stated that the timeout on certain timber sales doesn’t mean the older trees will be shielded forever.
The move was celebrated by environmental advocates.
“There are not so many of these mature forests remaining. And my sense is, you know, over the course of the last four or so years, some of these older forests, these mature forests, they came up for sale and, you know, constituents, Washingtonians who use these lands, they started noticing,” said Rachel Baker, Forest Program Manager for Washington Conservation Action.
Legacy forest is not formally defined term nor an official category used by government agencies, but it is frequently used by environmental organizations to refer to naturally regenerated stands of trees that predate World War II. Many of the trees impacted by Commissioner Upthegrove’s pause fit the description.
“They’re really beautiful. I think when you step into one of these stands, it kind of changes your mindset. You really feel like you’re transported to a different place. And, what’s interesting about these stands is they. They are these kind of remnant stands from the past. So, they’ve been there a long time. They’ve seen a lot of things,” said Baker. “I think what we’ve seen in the last 3 or 4 years is, there’s been a real grassroots mobilization and movement around these forests and different expectations for what comes out of our forestland and maybe a loss of trust or kind of social license on the part of DNR.”
The pause on certain planned timber sales has raised concerns among a number of timber industry organizations and trust beneficiaries. That includes rural counties which rely on proceeds from trust land timber auctions to support local emergency services as well as for school construction dollars.
Paul Jewell, Government Relations Director for the Washington State Association of Counties, said the big trees that the Pacific Northwest is famous for provide both direct revenue and indirect support to local economies. They are an important source of jobs, particularly in smaller, rural counties in Washington.
According to Jewell, counties transferred large tracts of timberland to the Department of Natural Resources for management in the 1930s and ’40s, in exchange for annual revenue from timber harvests and other activities.
The half-year halt on timber sales involving some of the most valuable trees available for harvest has significant implications for communities that rely on timber revenue.
“There’s all kinds of county services where this revenue goes. It goes to the county general fund that pays for all kinds of things like public health, human services. The majority of that money goes to law enforcement and justice services. There’s the county road fund that pays roads. But this revenue in most counties is also split with other service providers like fire districts, schools, libraries, hospital districts, emergency services and others so it has a pretty wide range of things that it supports. It’s pretty important in rural communities,” said Jewell.
Jewell said that many of the older trees thought to be impacted by Commissioner Upthegrove’s logging pause were put forward as replacement harvest areas when other trees were set aside to serve as habitat for the marbled murrelet.
“This was done in cooperation with state DNR scientists and federal U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists, all in agreement under this new long term conservation strategy. A lot of the lands that were released are part of this decision by Commissioner Upthegrove to not harvest. That’s significant because those lands have mature trees on them that can be harvested that are very valuable,” said Jewell.
Upthegrove has acknowledged that the pause will delay payments for various stakeholders in the subsequent cycles, but he has also tried to reassure stakeholders that there will be replacement trees available for harvest.
Skeptics argue that a lot of the potential substitute timber is much younger and would require cutting more acreage to produce an equivalent amount of lumber at a greater expense.
“Our estimates show that even though we would have to harvest about 6600 more acres, the reduced value and added costs associated with that would cost local governments almost $100 million or more, in lost revenue. So it’s still a net loss, a loss to the beneficiaries, which is problematic,” said Jewell.
When timber sales are contested, stakeholder counties aren’t always on the same side of the issue. A group of Thurston County Commissioners previously pushed for the Department of Natural Resources to remove certain tracts of forest from proposed timber sales over concerns raised by residents. However, Jewell argues that counties on the whole do care about having a voice in what happens on trust lands in their boundaries or earmarked for their regions.
To Baker, the change in direction at DNR is an encouraging sign and an opportunity to consider a different approach to forest management that allows continued timber harvesting, but also preserves some of the older forests in question, such as growing trees longer before they are cut.
“We are of the perspective as an organization that timber harvest is part of our state’s economy. It’s going to occur. It’s important to local economies. It’s part of our identity,” said Baker. “Let them grow to 80 years old. That can store more carbon, can generate more timber.”